2023-05-19 16:57:00
Two years after awarding a first contract to SpaceX, NASA announced on Friday that it had chosen the American space company Blue Origin to build a second moon landing system, intended to transport astronauts to the surface of the Moon.
The lander has been selected for the Artemis 5 mission, which is due to take place in 2029. It will first have to demonstrate its safety by landing on the Moon without a crew.
Billionaire Jeff Bezos, founder of Blue Origin, said Friday on Twitter “honoured to be part of this journey with NASA to land astronauts on the Moon”.
The contract is worth $3.4 billion, but John Couluris, vice president of lunar transport at Blue Origin, said at a press conference that the company would itself contribute “well to the beyond” this amount to develop the ship.
The Artemis program is the American return to the Moon program. It is made up of missions of increasing difficulty.
In 2021, NASA chose SpaceX to build the Artemis 3 lander, which will be the first mission to land astronauts on the lunar surface since 1972. The contract was worth $2.9 billion, although SpaceX again contributes to the effort beyond this amount.
Blue Origin, which was also in competition for this first contract, had filed a complaint against NASA, accusing it of having chosen a single company for this mission and not two as it had implied – a practice commonly used to guard against the possible failure of one of them. But the complaint was dismissed.
In 2022, SpaceX was also chosen by NASA for the lander of the Artemis 4 mission.
At the same time, the American space agency launched a call for tenders for other companies for the rest of the program.
“We want more competition. We want two landers”Nasa boss Bill Nelson said on Friday. “That means you have more reliability, and a back-up alternative.”
Blue Origin’s lander, called Blue Moon, is being developed with several partner companies: Lockheed Martin, Draper, Boeing, Astrobotic, and Honeybee Robotics.
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